I Pass the California Bar Exam

On November 20, 2009, I passed the July 2009 California Bar Examination. It was my first time taking it. Was I happy? Absolutely. The numbers indicate that, for perhaps a variety of reasons, California's Bar exam has the lowest pass rate among all the states. From the stats I've seen, the July 2009 pass rate was in the mid 50% range, about 6% lower than the July 2008 pass rate.

(As an aside, the July 2009 administration was also the one where Sara Granda took it. She's the disabled law student who had her Bar exam fees paid by check instead of credit card. As a result, the California State Bar refused to let her take the exam. She was only allowed to take the exam on July 28, 2009 (the day before the exam) when the California State Supreme Court said she could. Sara passed)

If you're going to be taking the California Bar exam, you'll quickly find (as I did) that there is no shortage of advice out there. If you listen to it carefully, though, you'll hopefully discern that not all advice is equal. For example:

In random order below, here's what worked for me. Hopefully it will work (or at least help) you. (Note: I did take the Barbri prep course. Most Bar prep courses are equivalent, I think, so I'm not recommending/endorsing Barbri over any other. I only mention them because it's more convenient than saying "my prep course").

  1. You're most likely going to use a laptop to type your exam so make sure it is in tip-top working order. Perhaps it wasn't necessary, but I removed/uninstalled all non-essential programs. I also removed obviously extraneous files (e.g. mp3s, Word docs unrelated to the Bar exam, etc). I then scanned my laptop for viruses (AVG Antivirus), removed extraneous files (Ccleaner), scanned for Malware/Spyware (Malwarebytes and SuperAntispy). Because I'm cheap, all of these programs are freely downloadable. I'm sure other scanning programs will work just as well. 
  2. I also strongly recommend disabling any programs that do things automatically, such as automatic updates or automatic scans. A lot of antivirus programs, for instance, automatically start scanning at preset times. If you're in Examsoft and this happens, your computer may freeze or become so obscenely slow that you'll have to handwrite the remainder of your answer.
     
  3. The Exam itself is unlike a law school essay exam in that it measures competency instead of perfection. I don't recall the exact essay and performance test questions I had, but the facts were short and simple. There was no indication of any tricks or latent ambiguities, unlike most law school exams.
  4. Start your preparation early. My Bar exam was July 28 through July 30, 2009. I started my preparation in March.
  5. Be diligent. If you're taking a commercial preparation class, make sure you go everyday. Is it boring? Yes. Is it silly? Yes, because all you're likely to do is sit in a room and watch videos, but making sure you go each day disciplines you psychologically. Just like it's easier to train for a marathon, quit smoking, or lose weight in groups, it is easier to study for the Bar exam with other people.
  6. Stay on top of your work.  If you happen to miss a class or day, make it up right away, ideally the next day. The classes do not build on one another (e.g. Con Law does not build on Civil Procedure), but you will cover new material every day so it is quite easy to fall behind. I do not recommend taking weekends off -- do less studying on the weekends, but still study. 
  7. Get regular exercise. I've exercised (weights and cardio) regularly for years, but my friends who haven't told me that doing so during Bar preparation helped them stay awake and alert during the 3 days of the actual exam. I would exercise for two additional reasons. First, it's a diversion that keeps you relaxed. Second, it provides an outlet for your mind to organize all the legal thoughts and mnemonics you've been trying to cram in.
  8. Do not rely entirely on a commercial preparation company. One piece of advice I got before beginning my Bar prep was to schedule my Barbri lecture for the time of day I'm the least productive. At that time, I was not a morning person so I took the morning Barbri class. The reason for doing so is that most of the real substantive preparatory work you do is going to be on your own, outside of class.
  9. This was by far the most important thing I did: I looked up and did old Essay and Performance Test exams that the California State Bar releases. This ended up being hugely valuable for me because the California State Bar releases answers to these exams as well. Moreover, these answers are deemed by the State Bar to be the best in the entire state during that particular exam administration. My impression from reading these so-called "best" answers was that they were definitely something I could do within a 3-hour exam session. To put it another way, the answers weren't bad, but they weren't excellent either, which perhaps just reinforces point #1 above that the California Bar Exam measures competency, not perfection.
  10. Stay motivated. Some people are motivated by loving friends and family. In my case, I was motivated by anger in the form of an image of the boss (a physicist) I used to have. I had done a lot of good work for him so if anyone was in a position to write a glowing letter of recommendation for me, it would have been him. When I mentioned "graduate school" to him, he was very enthusiastic but this was only because -- as I later discovered -- that he thought I was going for a PhD degree like he had done. When I mentioned "law school" instead, his enthusiasm went away. He declined to write me a letter and went so far as to say an engineer (which I was at the time) had no business going to law school, that I would never get in to a law school, much less finish and get licensed. Obviously, I proved him wrong.
  11. Do look at the venue before the exam to get a feel of the facility (e.g. where the bathrooms are, where the restaurants are, etc). If you're staying in a hotel, make sure you know how to get from there to the venue.
  12. Do use flashcards. I hate memorizing, but the law unfortunately does involve a lot of it so I had to do it and so will you if you want to pass. Obviously, if you have something other than flashcards that works for you, use them.
  13. Do not modify your routine during the weeks leading up to the exam so as to keep the stress in your life to a minimum. Thus, if you're a smoker, quit, but not during Bar prep.
  14. Do keep a sense of humor. One of the things I consistently found hilarious was the Jill and Kevin Heinz wedding dance video (below left). I put it onto my iPod and ended up watching it over and over again during the lunch breaks and in the mornings before the facility opened. It made me smile and laugh and that's what I needed. The video on the right came out after the July 09 Bar, but I'd definitely put it on my iPod if I was taking the February or July 2010 exams.

Things to remember throughout:

  1. Realize that the exam is not hard. I worked for 6 years between college and law school and all of the things I did (lead teams, supervise people, give presentations to groups, etc) were harder than the California Bar Exam. Plenty of people have passed the exam and, unless you're an absolute imbecile, many of them were dumber than you.
  2. However, at the same time, remember that the exam is also not easy. If you blow it off or think that you can cram for it, it will likely bite you in the ass when results are released.
  3. The California State Bar puts out passage statistics on who takes the exam. One thing it shows is that the odds of you passing the exam the first time is, for instance, in the 75% to 83% range if you went to an ABA-accredited law school. If you don't pass the exam the first time, however, your odds of passing the second time drop dramatically -- down to the 30% range, even if you went to an ABA-accredited school. I don't know why this is and there are, of course, people who buck this trend. However, my point in bringing this up is to show that it is not a good idea to think that you can just "take the exam again if you don't pass the first time". You certainly can take the exam again, but it is a much better use of time and money to pass the first time by being as diligent and disciplined as you possibly can during your preparation.

Aside: Can you prepare for the California Bar on your own?

In creating this page, I got to thinking about this question and I've concluded that the answer is yes. (Naturally, if you decide to prepare on your own, it isn't my fault if you fail).

If you are going to prepare on your own, I would recommend finding a friend who is taking a commercial course concurrently or who just finished taking a commercial course so you can bum supplies off of them. One thing I'd recommend bumming is a schedule of what subjects to review and practice exercises to do when.

Good luck.

  Last edited: Sunday, May 15, 2011 01:18:26 PM

Originally authored: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 08:06:21 PM